Catfish
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Most people on this board think that Ken Whizenhunt is the savior of Cardinals Football here in the Valley. They proclaim that Whiz changed the culture of this franchise. I say bunk-----
Michael Bidwill changed the culture of this franchise. He almost singlehandedly got the new stadium built. He was tireless in his pursuit of what his father had been promised in l988 when they moved from ST. Louis to Phoenix.
After twice losing out to the City of Broad Streets and Narrow Minds, (Mesa), and once losing out to Tempe, who was unfairly waylayed by Phoenix, he finally got the City of GLendale to go where no one would go before.
He then convinced his Dad to name him head of football operations. He hired Denny Green, who brought us some talent. Adrian Wilson, Carlos Dansby, Anquan Boldin, Gerald Hayes, Darnell Dockett, Larry FItzgerald, Deuce Lutui, Edgarin James, Matt Leinart, and Kurt Warner to name a few. He was a hard nosed GM and HC wrapped up in one package, and was a mistake, because he never accepted blame or fault for any failings. He was quick to find a scapegoat every time we failed, and it was terrible.
Michael acted quickly and hired Whiz, who brought in his friend and co-hort in Pittsburgh, Russ Grimm. Remember, Pittsburgh was also looking for a HC, and had passed on both these guys to hire Mike Tomlin. Apparently they did this with good reason.
Whiz and Grimm brought some position coaches loyal to them, but they were not necessarily so good. What they did know was the Pittsburgh way of doing things, and we became known as Pittsburgh West because of our propensity for doing things like they did in Pittsburgh, where Whiz was the OC and Grimm coached the O-line.
Whiz, who had some problems with Rothlisberger in Pittsburgh, (they didn't see eye to eye), was their OC when Pittsburgh won the SuperBowl Rothlisberger's rookie year. How many of you believe that this happened because Whiz was calling the plays? I would almost be willing to bet that if one went back and looked at film, it would show that far more points were scored by Pittsburgh's offense when Rothlisberger freelanced and scored, than they did following Whizenhunt's play calling. That was Big Ben's forte, and it still is. They also had the bus to ride, which again was not necessaarily a benefit of Whiz's play calling as it was of Grimm's O-line and the Bus packing the mail.
Whiz tried to incorporate a run game here in the desert, which promptly failed. He was soon platooning Kurt Warner, who they picked from the bottom of the barrel after NY was finished with him, with Leinart at the QB position. People started revelling in Whiz's prowess for having not one, but two QB's. Wrong,-----at that point they really didn't have any QB. Whiz trusted neither of them.
We did improve from 5-11, to 8-8, and Whiz became the toast of the City and the State. He then started Warner after Leinart got hurt, and went 10-6 in '08, and won a berth to the SB. The offense was terriffic under Warner, scoring more than 29 points a game, but the defense could not hold the better teams under that figure. We lost the SB late in the game by what everybody wanted to blame on the defense for giving away a late lead again.
In '09 we went 9-7, and had a playoff berth again. Again the defense came up short. These guys did well on offense, but were pretty poor at coaching a defense. They tried to fix it by replacing Clancy Pendergast with Billy Davis, but he actuall fared poorer that Clancy had by allowing our points per game allowed to go up.
Through all of this, it was clear, that Whizenhunt's personal choice for QB was not Leinart, or even Warner, but was Brian St. Pierre, whom he brought with him from Pittsburgh. St. Pierre possessed a cannon, but could not control where it went, (sound familiar). He was an embarrassment to the team and to Whizenhunt who could no longer even attempt to play him at QB. Both Leinart and Warner were vastly superior to him.
Much of our success should be attributed to Warner. Maybe much more than we are willing to acknowlege. Maybe Warner could see the handwriting on the wall, and chose to opt. out. The defense continues to get worse, but now so does the offense, and Whiz's solution was to bring in Derek Anderson, (another strong armed qb with no control over where his cannon fired). He promptly dumped Leinart, (probably so he wouldn't be embarrassed by him, like he was with St. Pierre).
Things then began a downward spiral, culminating in the mess we now have. I have argued that our talent, man for man, except for the QB position is stronger than last year. I may be wrong about that, but if so, not by a whole lot. What has continued is Whiz's propensity to mess with the QB, and the DC's inability to provide a successful use of the personnel that he has at his disposal, just like last year, and the year before, and the year before. These guys do not know defense, at least not the way Pittsburgh played it. They never did know it, and they don't seem to know what to do about it.
During the off-season, the FO, knowing that we wouldn't score as often as with Leinart, worked long and hard to produce the talent to improve our defense. They also beefed up our O-line to make it run-first grade. None of the coaches seems to have noticed this, because we are still playing a pass first attack on offense, and God only knows what we are playing on defense, because no one there seems able to put the players on that side of the ball in the best position to succeed.
For the first time, after the latest loss to Seattle, Whiz came out flaming the defense. But defense hasn't lost this team 5 games out of 8, the offense has. Whiz has never accepted accountability for his inability to correct the problems, and I'm sorry, but "we've got to get better as a team", is not a solution. That, to me is condescending, because it is more a veiled comment about his players, than it is an acknowlegement of the coaches failure to get results. I say this, because he never seems to put the burden on a coach, but instead calls out his 'team leaders'.
Whiz's handling of the QB situation since he arrived has been atrocious. The best results we had was when he WASN'T calling plays, and Haley was. Wanna guess who will have the smile on his face come Sunday evening. I doubt that it will be Whiz. Anyway, I believe that this is overdue on this board. No, I am not hollering 'Fire Whiz' like some are here. I AM pointing out what I believe to be problems with this coaching staff though, and because we have a very weak GM, it almost appears that Whiz trumps the guy he should be answering to. That really complicates matters, because Whiz has yet to acknowlege the problem, let alone try to fix it.
Michael Bidwill changed the culture of this franchise. He almost singlehandedly got the new stadium built. He was tireless in his pursuit of what his father had been promised in l988 when they moved from ST. Louis to Phoenix.
After twice losing out to the City of Broad Streets and Narrow Minds, (Mesa), and once losing out to Tempe, who was unfairly waylayed by Phoenix, he finally got the City of GLendale to go where no one would go before.
He then convinced his Dad to name him head of football operations. He hired Denny Green, who brought us some talent. Adrian Wilson, Carlos Dansby, Anquan Boldin, Gerald Hayes, Darnell Dockett, Larry FItzgerald, Deuce Lutui, Edgarin James, Matt Leinart, and Kurt Warner to name a few. He was a hard nosed GM and HC wrapped up in one package, and was a mistake, because he never accepted blame or fault for any failings. He was quick to find a scapegoat every time we failed, and it was terrible.
Michael acted quickly and hired Whiz, who brought in his friend and co-hort in Pittsburgh, Russ Grimm. Remember, Pittsburgh was also looking for a HC, and had passed on both these guys to hire Mike Tomlin. Apparently they did this with good reason.
Whiz and Grimm brought some position coaches loyal to them, but they were not necessarily so good. What they did know was the Pittsburgh way of doing things, and we became known as Pittsburgh West because of our propensity for doing things like they did in Pittsburgh, where Whiz was the OC and Grimm coached the O-line.
Whiz, who had some problems with Rothlisberger in Pittsburgh, (they didn't see eye to eye), was their OC when Pittsburgh won the SuperBowl Rothlisberger's rookie year. How many of you believe that this happened because Whiz was calling the plays? I would almost be willing to bet that if one went back and looked at film, it would show that far more points were scored by Pittsburgh's offense when Rothlisberger freelanced and scored, than they did following Whizenhunt's play calling. That was Big Ben's forte, and it still is. They also had the bus to ride, which again was not necessaarily a benefit of Whiz's play calling as it was of Grimm's O-line and the Bus packing the mail.
Whiz tried to incorporate a run game here in the desert, which promptly failed. He was soon platooning Kurt Warner, who they picked from the bottom of the barrel after NY was finished with him, with Leinart at the QB position. People started revelling in Whiz's prowess for having not one, but two QB's. Wrong,-----at that point they really didn't have any QB. Whiz trusted neither of them.
We did improve from 5-11, to 8-8, and Whiz became the toast of the City and the State. He then started Warner after Leinart got hurt, and went 10-6 in '08, and won a berth to the SB. The offense was terriffic under Warner, scoring more than 29 points a game, but the defense could not hold the better teams under that figure. We lost the SB late in the game by what everybody wanted to blame on the defense for giving away a late lead again.
In '09 we went 9-7, and had a playoff berth again. Again the defense came up short. These guys did well on offense, but were pretty poor at coaching a defense. They tried to fix it by replacing Clancy Pendergast with Billy Davis, but he actuall fared poorer that Clancy had by allowing our points per game allowed to go up.
Through all of this, it was clear, that Whizenhunt's personal choice for QB was not Leinart, or even Warner, but was Brian St. Pierre, whom he brought with him from Pittsburgh. St. Pierre possessed a cannon, but could not control where it went, (sound familiar). He was an embarrassment to the team and to Whizenhunt who could no longer even attempt to play him at QB. Both Leinart and Warner were vastly superior to him.
Much of our success should be attributed to Warner. Maybe much more than we are willing to acknowlege. Maybe Warner could see the handwriting on the wall, and chose to opt. out. The defense continues to get worse, but now so does the offense, and Whiz's solution was to bring in Derek Anderson, (another strong armed qb with no control over where his cannon fired). He promptly dumped Leinart, (probably so he wouldn't be embarrassed by him, like he was with St. Pierre).
Things then began a downward spiral, culminating in the mess we now have. I have argued that our talent, man for man, except for the QB position is stronger than last year. I may be wrong about that, but if so, not by a whole lot. What has continued is Whiz's propensity to mess with the QB, and the DC's inability to provide a successful use of the personnel that he has at his disposal, just like last year, and the year before, and the year before. These guys do not know defense, at least not the way Pittsburgh played it. They never did know it, and they don't seem to know what to do about it.
During the off-season, the FO, knowing that we wouldn't score as often as with Leinart, worked long and hard to produce the talent to improve our defense. They also beefed up our O-line to make it run-first grade. None of the coaches seems to have noticed this, because we are still playing a pass first attack on offense, and God only knows what we are playing on defense, because no one there seems able to put the players on that side of the ball in the best position to succeed.
For the first time, after the latest loss to Seattle, Whiz came out flaming the defense. But defense hasn't lost this team 5 games out of 8, the offense has. Whiz has never accepted accountability for his inability to correct the problems, and I'm sorry, but "we've got to get better as a team", is not a solution. That, to me is condescending, because it is more a veiled comment about his players, than it is an acknowlegement of the coaches failure to get results. I say this, because he never seems to put the burden on a coach, but instead calls out his 'team leaders'.
Whiz's handling of the QB situation since he arrived has been atrocious. The best results we had was when he WASN'T calling plays, and Haley was. Wanna guess who will have the smile on his face come Sunday evening. I doubt that it will be Whiz. Anyway, I believe that this is overdue on this board. No, I am not hollering 'Fire Whiz' like some are here. I AM pointing out what I believe to be problems with this coaching staff though, and because we have a very weak GM, it almost appears that Whiz trumps the guy he should be answering to. That really complicates matters, because Whiz has yet to acknowlege the problem, let alone try to fix it.
